Likelihood of GW2 coming to Steam

[Cyninja.2954]

What will be interesting here is if this will have an effect on the gem-gold conversion since now not all real money gem purchases will be of similar value to Arenanet. Gems purchased via Steam will net less income.

Overall the higher volume might make up for this though, and for players it matters little whom they pay their 10 real money currency.

[urd.8306]

What about steam achievements for old accounts? Any way to get those and link accounts?

[Kichwas.7152]

Steam takes a cut of your earnings.

Look at what's going on right now with a certain other game developer and an exclusive platform store for mobile games...

No one wants to suffer those cuts if they can avoid it.

If GW2 went to steam, you can expect the game to make about 30% LESS money... which means laying off more devs, delaying more expacs, cancelling more voice actors, slowing up more of the Living Story... etc...

If they can at all make enough to keep the game alive WITHOUT Steam, they should.

[Evil.1580]

@Kichwas.7152 said:Steam takes a cut of your earnings.

Look at what's going on right now with a certain other game developer and an exclusive platform store for mobile games...

No one wants to suffer those cuts if they can avoid it.

If GW2 went to steam, you can expect the game to make about 30% LESS money... which means laying off more devs, delaying more expacs, cancelling more voice actors, slowing up more of the Living Story... etc...

If they can at all make enough to keep the game alive WITHOUT Steam, they should.

Normally, Valve takes around 30 percent of all game sales on Steam, with some exceptions for games from smaller developers in its Steam Direct program. That will remain the case for the first $10 million in sales a game maker or publisher earns. For all sales between $10 million and $50 million, the split goes to 25 percent. And for every sale after the initial $50 million, Steam will take just a 20 percent cut. On what exactly will steam take the cut? Is it the expansions, is it INGAME gem purchases, or will it be only steam gem purchases?

However, Steam may double the player base of GW2. In this case, this 20-30 % will be well worth it.

[Kichwas.7152]

@"bOTEB.1573" said:

@Kichwas.7152 said:Steam takes a cut of your earnings.

Look at what's going on right now with a certain other game developer and an exclusive platform store for mobile games...

No one wants to suffer those cuts if they can avoid it.

If GW2 went to steam, you can expect the game to make about 30% LESS money... which means laying off more devs, delaying more expacs, cancelling more voice actors, slowing up more of the Living Story... etc...

If they can at all make enough to keep the game alive WITHOUT Steam, they should.

Normally, Valve takes around 30 percent of all game sales on Steam, with some exceptions for games from smaller developers in its Steam Direct program. That will remain the case for the first $10 million in sales a game maker or publisher earns. For all sales between $10 million and $50 million, the split goes to 25 percent. And for every sale after the initial $50 million, Steam will take just a 20 percent cut. On what exactly will steam take the cut? Is it the expansions, is it INGAME gem purchases, or will it be only steam gem purchases?

However, Steam may double the player base of GW2. In this case, this 20-30 % will be well worth it.

That's almost never actually happened though for MMOs. Some portion of the base migrates over, a few people join, but not many. When MMOs grow it's due to new content, not which icon people click on their desktop to launch it.

[Evil.1580]

@Kichwas.7152 said:

@"bOTEB.1573" said:

@Kichwas.7152 said:Steam takes a cut of your earnings.

Look at what's going on right now with a certain other game developer and an exclusive platform store for mobile games...

No one wants to suffer those cuts if they can avoid it.

If GW2 went to steam, you can expect the game to make about 30% LESS money... which means laying off more devs, delaying more expacs, cancelling more voice actors, slowing up more of the Living Story... etc...

If they can at all make enough to keep the game alive WITHOUT Steam, they should.

Normally, Valve takes around 30 percent of all game sales on Steam, with some exceptions for games from smaller developers in its Steam Direct program. That will remain the case for the first $10 million in sales a game maker or publisher earns. For all sales between $10 million and $50 million, the split goes to 25 percent. And for every sale after the initial $50 million, Steam will take just a 20 percent cut. On what exactly will steam take the cut? Is it the expansions, is it INGAME gem purchases, or will it be only steam gem purchases?

However, Steam may double the player base of GW2. In this case, this 20-30 % will be well worth it.

That's almost never actually happened though for MMOs. Some portion of the base migrates over, a few people join, but not many. When MMOs grow it's due to new content, not which icon people click on their desktop to launch it.

So Steam will take 20-30% cut ONLY from these few people that migrate or join.

[Blocki.4931]

The cut Steam gets probably very much offset by the amount of new players this move will gain them, pretty sure.Another platform really does work wonders, as long as things actually work.

[Randulf.7614]

I don't think we need to concern ourselves with what cut Steam do or do not take. Anet/NCSOFT clearly believe at this stage it is now worth it and they are far more knowledgeable about the situation and the effects it will have on the game's population and finances than the players.

[waxx.3619]

Seems like lot of people here know more about Anet internal earnings here than Anet themselves lol. I am sure Anet did their research before considering moving to steam. Just relax lol. I am sure it will be a positive adventure for them.

[kharmin.7683]

@"bOTEB.1573" said:However, Steam may double the player base of GW2. In this case, this 20-30 % will be well worth it.That is pure speculation.

[Algreg.3629]

@waxx.3619 said:Going back reading all those denier post now is just funny hahaha. Good for Anet loving this. It revived SWTOR and Keeps ESO and FFXIV on top. I hope GW2 can get a boost too.

Deniers? Most people were telling you the pros and cons of publishing on Steam and that these discussions were pointless as only Anet can weigh them according to their business projections. So they now came to the conclusion it is a good idea, probably because of decreasing player numbers/income vs. more market exposure (and having to share earnings with Valve). Do you really believe yourself so important they actually did this because there were some super smart guys in here proposing that - because they need some super smart armchair economists as they are too stupid to check the Steam option themselves? Mindboggling.

[Atomos.7593]

I'm surprised that they did it so soon. Goes to show lots of things are possible and only Arenanet have the data to make the final decision on suggestions that may have been internally or externally generated. I think it's a good move, and hopefully it will bring new players and at least create some more widespread interest in the game.

[jokke.6239]

@Korval.3751 said:

@maddoctor.2738 said:

@"jokke.6239" said:I've already covered this, but again .. As I've already mentioned .. We have no idea how they would release it on steam.

They could either

1. Require you to have to use a new account (as I mentioned earlier, would make the most sense)
2. Be able to use your old account

If 1 is the case, they wouldn't lose any revenue from players from the standalone client.If 2 is the case, they would absolutely lose a lot of money from whales who switch over to steam,

Releasing on Steam means releasing on a new audience, not killing the old one. Meaning there is zero chance of "losing whales".

Exactly. The account credentials aren't tied to Steam, they're tied to the game's launcher (e.g. that's how people log into the game). I hadn't played SWTOR in years (I believe 3 years since I last played). I was able to install from Steam, launch the game, and log into my account from the existing SWOTR launcher. No fuss, no mess. Easy. Simple.

Requiring existing players to create new accounts if they launch and play from Steam literally makes no sense. It's not a valid point. :)

Yes as you can see from todays news, I didn't make any sense or had a valid point ;)

[jokke.6239]

@Korval.3751 said:

@jokke.6239 said:They could ofc require you to make a new account though to play through steam, it would annoy the heck out of me, as I would really love the game on steam, but it would probably be the smartest solution for them.

Why would they do that? Steam would launch the same GW2 launcher players use now. Everyone would log into the same game from the same launcher.

I don't know. Ask arena net ;)

[Dante.1508]

Welp its on steam but existing customers cannot use it.. that's just dumb.. and limits the steam player base a lot. SWTOR had no issues with using existing accounts i smell something "fake" in this design sorry.I would have switched to Steam in a heart beat.

[Atomos.7593]

@"Dante.1508" said:Welp its on steam but existing customers cannot use it.. that's just dumb.. and limits the steam player base a lot. SWTOR had no issues with using existing accounts i smell something "fake" in this design sorry.I would have switched to Steam in a heart beat.

Yeah I wondered about this too. SWTOR on steam simply launches the SWTOR game client and I could use my old account from ages ago to login on the game client through steam. Not sure why this isn't possible for existing players in GW2 if that's what Anet means, but it's disappointing.

[Dante.1508]

@Atomos.7593 said:

@"Dante.1508" said:Welp its on steam but existing customers cannot use it.. that's just dumb.. and limits the steam player base a lot. SWTOR had no issues with using existing accounts i smell something "fake" in this design sorry.I would have switched to Steam in a heart beat.

Yeah I wondered about this too. SWTOR on steam simply launches the SWTOR game client and I could use my old account from ages ago to login on the game client through steam. Not sure why this isn't possible for existing players in GW2 if that's what Anet means, but it's disappointing.

Yep seems strange to me to limit so many customers because of Gems, i assume its a steam Gems thing as Fallout 76 has that issue.. But you can still use existing items and accounts you have, you just need to only purchase through either steam or the retail you cannot do both.. Which is still better than what we have here.

[Atomos.7593]

@Dante.1508 said:

@Atomos.7593 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Welp its on steam but existing customers cannot use it.. that's just dumb.. and limits the steam player base a lot. SWTOR had no issues with using existing accounts i smell something "fake" in this design sorry.I would have switched to Steam in a heart beat.

Yeah I wondered about this too. SWTOR on steam simply launches the SWTOR game client and I could use my old account from ages ago to login on the game client through steam. Not sure why this isn't possible for existing players in GW2 if that's what Anet means, but it's disappointing.

Yep seems strange to me to limit so many customers because of Gems, i assume its a steam Gems thing as Fallout 76 has that issue.. But you can still use existing items and accounts you have, you just need to only purchase through either steam or the retail you cannot do both.. Which is still better than what we have here.

For me, it would be fine if they had to restrict gem purchases through the gem store only and not through steam if the percentage cut that steam takes is not worth it. Other MMOs that I have played through steam do this. However, all of those allow existing accounts to login to the game client through steam still, so it seems odd that they can't allow this option. Maybe it's something to do with the way the game client has been coded. The only MMO that I have played so far which hasn't allowed existing accounts to play through the steam game client also is FFXIV.

[Dante.1508]

@Atomos.7593 said:

@Dante.1508 said:

@Atomos.7593 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Welp its on steam but existing customers cannot use it.. that's just dumb.. and limits the steam player base a lot. SWTOR had no issues with using existing accounts i smell something "fake" in this design sorry.I would have switched to Steam in a heart beat.

Yeah I wondered about this too. SWTOR on steam simply launches the SWTOR game client and I could use my old account from ages ago to login on the game client through steam. Not sure why this isn't possible for existing players in GW2 if that's what Anet means, but it's disappointing.

Yep seems strange to me to limit so many customers because of Gems, i assume its a steam Gems thing as Fallout 76 has that issue.. But you can still use existing items and accounts you have, you just need to only purchase through either steam or the retail you cannot do both.. Which is still better than what we have here.

For me, it would be fine if they had to restrict gem purchases through the gem store only and not through steam if the percentage cut that steam takes is not worth it. Other MMOs that I have played through steam do this. However, all of those allow existing accounts to login to the game client through steam still, so it seems odd that they can't allow this option. Maybe it's something to do with the way the game client has been coded. The only MMO that I have played so far which hasn't allowed existing accounts to play through the steam game client also is FFXIV.

No a few Jrpg mmos have also tried this route to block existing customers and did very badly in Steam because of it, Maple Story 2 died..

[Atomos.7593]

@Dante.1508 said:

@Atomos.7593 said:

@Dante.1508 said:

@Atomos.7593 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Welp its on steam but existing customers cannot use it.. that's just dumb.. and limits the steam player base a lot. SWTOR had no issues with using existing accounts i smell something "fake" in this design sorry.I would have switched to Steam in a heart beat.

Yeah I wondered about this too. SWTOR on steam simply launches the SWTOR game client and I could use my old account from ages ago to login on the game client through steam. Not sure why this isn't possible for existing players in GW2 if that's what Anet means, but it's disappointing.

Yep seems strange to me to limit so many customers because of Gems, i assume its a steam Gems thing as Fallout 76 has that issue.. But you can still use existing items and accounts you have, you just need to only purchase through either steam or the retail you cannot do both.. Which is still better than what we have here.

For me, it would be fine if they had to restrict gem purchases through the gem store only and not through steam if the percentage cut that steam takes is not worth it. Other MMOs that I have played through steam do this. However, all of those allow existing accounts to login to the game client through steam still, so it seems odd that they can't allow this option. Maybe it's something to do with the way the game client has been coded. The only MMO that I have played so far which hasn't allowed existing accounts to play through the steam game client also is FFXIV.

No a few Jrpg mmos have also tried this route to block existing customers and did very badly in Steam because of it, Maple Story 2 died..

Interesting. I hope it doesn't become a thing now to get some existing customers to purchase the game and content again, and start all over on a new account.